


arrive, depart, arrive, depart

by CMQ31



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Space, Comedy, Eventual Romance, Family Drama, Multi, Space Opera, Team Bonding, Team as Family, hansol appears in ch 6, wonu in ch 7
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-25
Updated: 2018-11-21
Packaged: 2019-06-16 01:48:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 15,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15426378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CMQ31/pseuds/CMQ31
Summary: In short, Seungcheol messes up and drags three complete strangers into his own mess— but then again, it wasn't his fault that Mingyu happened to be in the spacecraft Seungcheol had stolen, that Wonwoo had walked into the wrong place at the wrong time, and that as skeptical as Hansol was, he was very much gullible.But despite that, they were all pretty much down for an adventure in space.





	1. One.

**Author's Note:**

> So basically it's a space au starring the hiphop team. The others dont appear until later and there wont be much romance here
> 
> Oomf kept terrorizing be to post this so im sorr y for the mistakes uwu

_11AL-N, May 30 xxxx, 17:00_

The torn piece of paper in Seungcheol’s hands felt heavy. He glares down at the poorly drawn sketch of him that stared back to him with its goofy-looking eyes. He presses his lips into a thin line before crumpling said paper in his hands. He tosses it at a random direction before standing up.

 

They were clearly after him. But it wasn’t inevitable; Seungcheol had made a name for himself in the media. He was known as the infamous leader of a group of thieves from the underground world, the cruel man who had stolen from the innocent people.

 

Well they completely misunderstood his intentions.

 

It wasn’t Seungcheol’s fault that the government was being unfair, it wasn’t Seungcheol’s fault that his family weren’t well off, it wasn’t Seungcheol’s fault that humans were the ones to decide ‘oh look, an inhabited planet with rich resources and occupants who can’t fight back! Let’s take it all away from them!’. Well, perhaps Seungcheol’s race were partly at fault for that, but in the end, Seungcheol’s people were grouped with the aliens- no, inhabitants who originally lived here. Seungcheol hated the fact that no one could fight back.

 

So there he was, him and a group of lower-class people and some of aliens- well, planet’s inhabitants who are called Caeruleums by humans due to their blue eyes and hair, joined forces to steal from the rich in order to feed the poor, exactly like what Robin Hood did.

 

Caeruleums looked exactly like humans, strangely, the only difference being their electric blue eyes and hair and most of them towered over people by a foot long. It was odd that they couldn’t fight back against humans despite the fact that they could probably step on them with ease.

 

He suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder. Seungcheol smiles once he recognizes the voice speaking to him.

 

“I wouldn’t advice littering, _Mister Leader_ ,” the voice was spoken in a singsong tone, causing Seungcheol to chuckle.

 

Seungcheol grumbles. “Well it’s not my fault they hired a shitty artist to draw my face. I deserve better.”

 

“Sure you do.”

 

“I do!” Seungcheol exclaims, “the least they could give me was a proper sketch of my face!” He gestured the direction where he threw the crumpled at. the other man tilts his head at Seungcheol’s sudden outburst over something so small.

 

His reply earned an eye roll. “Whatever you say, Cheol. Doesn’t change the fact that they’re still after your- _our_ heads.”

 

Seungcheol playfully hits his ‘partner-in-crime’, Minjae, before stuffing both of his hands down the pockets of his worn-out bomber jacket.

 

Minjae was a young man, only younger than Seungcheol by a few months, who Seungcheol had known since high school. They weren’t close back then, but after graduation, they somehow hit off well.

 

He looks up with a sad smile.

 

“Do you ever get bored of staring at the same thing whenever you look up to the sky?”

 

Minjae gives him a look.

 

“But we can’t see the sky.”

 

Seungcheol deflates at his friend’s reply.

 

Minjae was right. Above them wasn’t the pretty blue sky with clouds decorating it, but rather pointy dark purple rocks that might fall off who-knows-when. Seungcheol, however, grimaces at Minjae’s reply, knowing that it was damn true.

 

“But maybe,” Seungcheol began, “maybe we will, one day. By ‘we’ I meant every single one of us who live down in this shithole.”

 

Seungcheol couldn’t deny that it would be a tough challenge. After all, they were people of the lower class; they had no right to step afoot into the upper areas where the middle and upper class citizens lived. They would surely receive punishment if people like Seungcheol were caught loitering around there.

 

The government had sworn that he would treat everyone fairly and that the only reason the lower areas existed was due to overpopulation and the lack of housing space available on the upper areas. However, it wasn’t surprising that the people of the lower class had only received the worst facilities and nearly expired food or barely enough food to feed the entire population to the point of starvation. Growing things in the underground was unquestionable.

 

Protest rallies were inevitable, however they fell into deaf ears. Everyone who had dared to go against the government had been beaten, thrown into jail, or received harsh punishment for being ‘selfish’. They had told them, “you only receive what you’re able to pay for”, meaning that they should suck it up and take whatever the world throws at you because apparently, you’re not working hard enough.

 

It just so happened that humans disliked aliens, despite the fact that humans were the ones to take away everything from them, they felt as if they had the right to the planet. Of course, not all higher-class people were at fault; again, it had been fate’s game all along.

 

“I’m tired, Minjae,” Seungcheol mutters.

 

Minjae sighs. “We don’t really have a choice…but it doesn’t mean I won’t stop trying, Cheol.” Seungcheol turns to face his friend, who had a determined look on his face.

 

Seungcheol smiles.

 

“Obviously.” However, Seungcheol genuinely looks tired.

 

Minjae pats Seungcheol’s back. “Come on, cheer up. We can do this.”

 

“Easier said than done. Imagine living your entire life in this dump, kinda hard to believe that you’re ever going to get out of here,” Seungcheol tails behind Minjae.

 

Minjae chuckles weakly. “You sound like you’re in dire need for a cup of coffee. Come on, my treat?” Seungcheol enthusiastically nods, as if the worries he had ranted about earlier completely disappeared from his mind.

 

When nighttime came – at least that was what the clock had shown, Seungcheol had no idea when nighttime actually happens –, Seungcheol and Minjae left the small coffee shop and headed towards a secluded part of the town.

 

Along the way, Seungcheol took his time to observe his surroundings; the old buildings that looked like they were about to fall apart, the dirty sidewalk they were walking on, the dried soil…it was depressing, really.

 

Seungcheol had been to the outside world many times to collect food and supplies, needless to say, Seungcheol never wanted to go back down after every visit.

 

“We’re going out tonight?” Minjae had asked him as they entered a familiar abandoned building.

 

Seungcheol nodded without looking at the other.

 

“Neat,” came Minjae’s reply, “everyone’s going?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“What are we doing?”

 

“Just wait and see. It’s a little different than the usual raids.”

 

Minjae flashes him a look of curiosity.

 

“I’m kinda worried…but I’m down for that.”

 

* * *

 

  

The room suddenly went quiet when the young man enters after three rapid knocks. He had a gut feeling that opening the door would be a terrible idea, as his father sounded a bit too enthusiastic than usual when he called him in.

 

Kim Mingyu, soon-to-be CEO of Kim Enterprises, was more or less reluctant about his own future. He was 21-years old; he had a lot to do and to come for him, yet the pressure he’s been receiving from his family to take over the company had made him feel iffy and anxious. If he were to be honest, he wasn’t ready and he had no idea what he’s doing.

 

Mingyu’s left eye twitches once he spots his father grinning from ear to ear at him with an annoyed young lady in a pink blouse standing next to him and a reluctant-looking older man in a suit who had a hand on the young lady’s shoulder.

 

“Mingyu! Son!” Mingyu’s father exclaims loudly, causing the young lady and the old man to flinch and cover their ears. “I’m glad you could make it!”

 

“I was in my _room_ , dad,” came Mingyu’s dry reply as he closes the door. He jumped when his dad somehow teleported behind him, hands gripping his shoulders tightly.

 

Mingyu’s father ignored his own son’s words and ushered him forward with his hands towards the annoyed young lady from earlier.

 

“Mingyu, this is Sooyoung,” Mingyu’s eyes fell on the girl in front of him, who merely shrugged, “she’s the CEO of Lee Group’s daughter and this,” Mingyu’s father gestures the older man, “is the CEO of Lee Group.”

 

“H-hi,” Mingyu stutters out awkwardly, unsure how to feel under her cold glare. He reached out to shake her hand, though his hand went through her hand. Those damn holograms. Mingyu grimaces at the fact that she was from another planet.

 

“Hey,” Sooyoung sounded uninterested and would rather be elsewhere. Mingyu was grateful that she seemed uninterested about what was about to happen to them.

 

Mingyu wasn’t dumb. He knows his father is trying to set him up in an arranged marriage just so they could merge their companies. It was the third time this year and Mingyu somehow managed to weasel his way out of each and every one.

 

Mingyu’s father seemed pleased about the bare minimum interaction that had just happened and clasps his hands together. “Wonderful! Now that you’re both acquainted, we’ve arranged a dinner date for you two to get to know each other more-“

 

“Dad,” Mingyu interrupts, “no offense to you, Mr. Lee, and Sooyoung, but I can’t do this.”

 

Sooyoung raises her hand and looks at her father. “I agree with the beanpole.”

 

_‘Beanpole…’_

Mingyu’s father looks at his son’s eyes, flashing a look of desperation and something else Mingyu couldn’t figure out. He immediately freezes and coughs awkwardly, looking away.

 

“Well, I mean, I appreciate your efforts into bringing the company into a better path and introducing me to the lovely…Mr. Kim and Sooyoung, but I already told you I’m not really up for marriage yet-“

 

“Which is why I’m giving you time to get to know her!” he enthusiastically replies, to which the Lee’s flinch over once again.

 

Mingyu rubs his temples. “Dad, please, even Mom agrees that these…arranged marriages or political marriages or whatever they’re called are pretty much outdated- no one does this anymore!” Mingyu waves his arms around at the last statement.

 

“Actually, a lot of people still do this,” Sooyoung suddenly pipes in, Mingyu’s head snaps towards her direction with an alarmed look, however, Sooyoung shrugs. “Doesn’t mean I’m into this either. I have a-“

 

“Sooyoung, please,” her father cuts her off with a look, “I’m not fond of the idea of you marrying…that man as well, but this is for the greater good.” Mingyu makes an offended look at that. “Besides,” Mr. Lee turns to glare at Mingyu’s father, which went unnoticed, “Mr. Kim is _very_ excited about this.” Mingyu cringes when his father nods at that.

 

Kim Mingyu, son of the CEO of Kim Enterprises, is letting himself into another arranged marriage _again_.

 

“But dad-“

 

“For the sake of our companies, I hereby agree with you, Mr. Kim,” Mr. Lee interrupts once more. Mingyu wanted to glare at him, but held himself back for the sake of his father.

 

“Don’t I have a say-…in this?” Mingyu protests weakly, suddenly nervous from the look Mr. Lee was giving him.

 

Sooyoung helplessly shrugs.

 

Mingyu turns to his father, who looked overjoyed.

 

Mingyu curses. Usually, he manages to weasel out of these arrangements with a simple no, but it seems like this particular marriage seems very important for the future of Kim Enterprises.

 

“Good! Mingyu, pack your things, you’re going on a long trip to where Mr. Lee and Sooyoung live.” Sooyoung and Mingyu’s jaws drop at that.

 

Mingyu wanted to run to the nearest cliff and jump.


	2. Two.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mingyu hatches a plan, Seungcheol does too

_11AL-N, May 30 xxxx, 19:45_

_“…You’re leaving in 5 hours, understood? Be sure to present yourself to them well once you reach there. Have a safe trip, son!”_

Mingyu throws himself on his bed.

 

Screw the company.

 

Screw arranged marriages.

 

Screw his future.

 

He buries his face into his pillow and emits a rather loud groan. He vaguely hears his sister telling him to shut up from the other room. He didn’t have the energy to tell her off, however.

 

Sometimes, Mingyu wishes that fate had a different plan for him.

 

Well, not really, he somewhat wishes that he was never the son of a CEO in the first place. He wasn’t particularly into the whole lifestyle of the rich- Mingyu was more of a simple person and isn’t all about the traditions going on in most families.

 

Mingyu had no plans to marry Sooyoung, hell, he doesn’t really have plans to marry anyone at all. He curses his father for planning something so out of the blue and sending him off to a planet afar in the span of a few hours. His life was surely interesting. Perhaps Mingyu should’ve went with mom on her business trip.

 

But because of that, he hatches a plan.

  
A plan to run away for _good_.

 

A light bulb popped up above his head and Mingyu’s demeanor changes, suddenly grinning like his father had when he was about to announce the dumb marriage.

 

He was 21, for goodness sake, he should be out there living his life outside of his parents’ clutches and dumb family traditions.

 

“I’m getting the hell out of here,” Mingyu mutters, rising up from his bed to pack his things. His heart nearly jumped out when a knock was suddenly heard from his door. He slowly makes his way to the door, opening it a little to look who was outside.

 

In front of his door stood two men clad in a dark uniform.

 

“Uh,” Mingyu started, “may I know why the Intergalactic Police Force…” Mingyu notices the unfamiliar badges on their chests, “…all the way from 24CR-T are doing here?” 24CR-T was the closest planet to 11AL-N, while Mingyu had never been there, he wasn’t unfamiliar with their symbols and such. Besides, he was sure that’s where Sooyoung was from.

 

Mingyu was pretty sure that they were both humans and Korean, unless they were a hybrid product…that Mingyu would rather not talk about. One of them was smiling at him and it made Mingyu feel somewhat secure, while the other one, who looked rather frail, had a serious look on his face, which made Mingyu shudder a little.

 

The two cops look at each other. The rather frail-looking one spoke up first.

 

“Mr. Lee sent us here,” the one called Jisoo spoke up, “we are assigned to escort you all the way to 24CR-T. My name is Hong Jisoo, you can call me Jisoo or Joshua.”

 

“Joshua?”

 

Jisoo nods. “I’ve worked and lived with people who aren’t Korean. My partner being an exception.” There was something odd about the way Jisoo referred to his partner next to him, Mingyu caught Jisoo’s features softening at the mention of the other.

 

“I’m Lee Seokmin,” the other man suddenly chimes in, smiling warmly at Mingyu. Mingyu wasn’t sure if cops were supposed to look this friendly.

 

Mingyu swallows.

 

“Uh, I’m Kim Mingyu.”

 

Jisoo nods. “We know. You are to be wed with Lee Sooyoung, right?”

 

Mingyu cringes. “Uh, I don’t…know?”

 

“But that’s what Mr. Lee told us,” Jisoo responds, sounding confused. Seokmin laughs and pats Jisoo’s back.

 

“It’s an arranged marriage. I’m sure their parents made them do it.”

 

Jisoo frowns. “But it’s for the greater good of their parents’ companies-“

 

“Sooyoung wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about it either, Jisoo,” Seokmin speaks out, Jisoo looked unsure and was about to protest but was cut off by his partner “come on, we’re probably bothering Mingyu, he needs to get ready since we’re leaving in 5 hours.” Jisoo raises a brow before nodding. His face was no longer soft and was replaced by a rather serious demeanor.

 

“He’s right. We’ll be seeing you, Kim.” Mingyu didn’t miss the way Seokmin looked into Jisoo’s eyes, and the way the other scoffs but smiles once Seokmin couldn’t see his face. It made Mingyu want to rip his hair out, frustrated by how hard the two tried to look professional but are pretty much obvious about it.

 

With that, Jisoo leaves without another word while Seokmin waves at Mingyu a little once Jisoo’s back was turned. Mingyu, still in daze, waved weakly at Seokmin.

 

Well he was sure he needed to bring earplugs during the trip.

 

Mingyu’s eyes landed on the window of his room.

 

“…Or not…” he spoke to himself, a smirk appearing.

 

 

“So tonight we’re taking a little revenge.”

 

The 6 other guys quickly turned their attention to Seungcheol. Minjae was smiling proudly beside Seungcheol, who had a similar expression on his face.

 

The room consisted of 3 other humans besides Seungcheol and Minjae and 3 Caeruleums, all of them being members of Seungcheol’s little group.

 

“Define ‘revenge’,” one of the Caeruleums called Stitch spoke. Caeruleums didn’t really have names except for the ones they call each other in their own language. The people of the lower class had taught them how to speak several languages, English being a priority language. After that, people started giving the Caeruleums names. Unfortunately, the names always involve some blue fictional character. In the room right now, stood Grover, Stitch, and Tom.

 

“We’re ruining their crops.”

 

“But why?” enquires Ali, one of the humans in the room. “Isn’t that going to kill the people who consume them? And aren’t we supposed to be stealing their crops? If we kill them all, we won’t be getting anything!”

 

The leader shook his head. “No, the affects of the chemicals we’re dropping there will be very much visible to the human eye so there’s no way they’re going to sell that to town. Besides, it’s a little revenge for shooting me in my thigh last week.” Seungcheol’s hand immediately went to his thigh. “Those rich people and their fancy laserguns.”

 

The man next to Ali, Daniel, seemed lost in thought. “I guess that makes sense. They were complete asses the last time we raided their field. Revenge is inevitable.”

 

“That farmer has been a complete asshole about the whole stratification thing anyway,” says Miguel, the fifth human in the room.

 

Seungcheol smiles. “So we’re all down for this?”

 

“Sometimes we just want to see the whole world burn,” Minjae chuckles. “It was my idea by the way,” he added.

 

Seungcheol playfully rolls his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, all hail Choi Minjae and his genius mind.” His teammates were smiling and nodding to eachother, the eldest in the room prompted them to get prepared. “This particualr chemical will immediately kill off the crops in a range of 10 minutes. Props to Minjae for getting ahold of this.” Minjae and Seungcheol high five at that.

 

However, Grover looked hesitant. “I’m not so sure about this. We’re taking it this far just because, no offense, they shot your leg and were protecting their crops?”

 

Minjae frowns. “Grover, they literally took away everything from you, your home, your land, hell, they’re even taking away your rights to be treated as a normal person...?” Minjae was never sure what to refer Caeruleums as.

 

Grover looks over to Tom, who shrugs in return. Sighing, Grover finally agrees to the plan. Seuncgheol was already in gear by the time he received his answer.

 

After what felt like forever, they finally left the building.

 

 

Mingyu’s clutches on his backpack grew tighter due to the rising anxiety he was currently having. He had managed to climb down the window of his room with all the things he needed to make a getaway. He thought about calling his friends to help him escape, but knowing that he’s an important person, they’d probably chicken out and not help him.

 

Mingyu looks back to see the amount of blankets he had tied together in order to get down. It was pretty cliché, though his sister was in posession of the short-distance teleporting machine so it was out of the question. His father wouldn’t be so far behind with the amount of evidence he had left behind.

 

Swallowing and wiping his sweat away, he started making his way towards airport, to the area where they kept spaceships ready to launch, where his father had kept most of his spaceships and aircrafts, being a company focused on the development of aerial transportations.

 

The walk to the airport wasn’t far, but far enough to tire Mingyu out halfway through. it wasn’t that Mingyu was weak, it was partly his anxiety about the entire situation to blame. Despite that, he was pretty excited to be one step closer to freedom.

 

_‘Just one step closer...just one step closer...’_

 

Mingyu chanted those words multiple times in his head, hoping to ease his worries. However, he didn’t expect for his anxiety to lessen the moment he arrives at the airport.

 

“Guess it’s now or never...” Mingyu mutters himself, hiding behind a concrete wall, carefully observing the warehouse which had several spaceships inside of them.

 

 

“Guess it’s now...or never,” Seungcheol whispered to himself, clutching the small glass bottle of chemicals inside his palms. He was currently hidden behind a tree alone, his teammates had scattered with their own bottles in their posession as well.

 

He suddenly heard a screaming sound from the distance, however, Seungcheol dismissed it, thinking it was a bunch of children playing and screaming.

 

Seungcheol activates his communicator.

 

 _‘Is everyone ready? I just saw the owner leave the area,’_ Minjae had said.

 

Seuncgheol smiles. _‘Wonderful. Are you all ready, boys?”_

_‘Hell yeah.’_

 

 

 

 


	3. Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jisoo and Seokmin look for Mingyu while Seungcheol gets caught in the act.

_11AL-N, May 30 xxxx, 20:05_

Jisoo was busying himself on his phone while Seokmin was putting his armour back on. Being space cops, as they would call it, requires you to be inside your uniform at all times during duty. The uniform consists of a regular dark blue uniform with dark pants, but when they’re on duty in space, they’re required to wear a mask and armour, and must be armed with guns at all time. Kind of like knights but with guns.

 

Jisoo thought the suit looked cool when he was young, though he did feel like it restricted his movements sometimes, but perhaps it was because he wasn’t that fit to begin with.

 

Seokmin had caught Jisoo glancing at him from time to time. He smiles at the thought of his partner being shy about it whenever he gets caught staring at Seokmin.

 

“Jisoo, we’re alone now, you can stare all you want.”

 

Jisoo remained quiet.

 

Seokmin knew that he was afraid to say anything unless they were in their shared apartment. Something along the lines of their boss’ ears are everywhere, though Seokmin knew it was just Jisoo being overly skeptical and paranoid.

 

“Jisoo-“

 

Seokmin was cut off by an alert from their phones. A distress signal. Both men immediately hurried up to put on their armor and grab their guns before storming out of the room. Jisoo already had his phone next to his ear.

 

“Officer Hong-!”

 

“Mr. Kim? What happened?” Jisoo sounded very calm despite the clear panic in Mr. Kim’s voice.

 

“Why didn’t you tell me that you and Mingyu had left earlier than I expected? I didn’t have the chance to see him off!” Mr. Kim sounded rather angry, though Jisoo narrows his eyes.

 

“Mr. Kim...we haven’t taken off yet.”

 

Silence.

 

“Then where the hell is my son!?”

 

Jisoo pulls away from his phone the moment Mr. Kim raises his voice, Seokmin eyes Jisoo with a raised eyebrow.

 

Jisoo clears his throat as the two made a sharp turn towards the door leading outside of the Kim’s household. “He was last seen in his room when we introduced ourselves to him. We’ll make sure that he hasn’t gone anywhere far if my speculations are true.”

 

He hears Mr. Kim audibly sigh.

 

“What speculations?”

 

“He’s obviously run away, Mr. Kim. Hong out.” Jisoo grumbles out before turning his phone away. “Seokmin, we’re going to find Mingyu and retrieve him back here before takeoff.” Seokmin, however, was busy staring at Jisoo with an amused look, the elder glances up to him with a dry look. “What?”

 

_‘You’re hella rude but it’s so cute and I fucking love you for that, Hong Jisoo.’_

Seokmin shook his head.

 

“Nothing.” However, Seokmin was smiling to himself.

 

 

 

Seungcheol manages to avoid every security cameras the farmer had installed in the borders of the field, he grimaces when he passes the spot where he once had gotten shot after trying to steal corn. It was unfortunate that the corn had been fried due to the laser gun the farmer had. But at least Seungcheol had a nice meal afterwards.

 

It was odd that none of his teammates have made any efforts to communicate with him throughout the mission, usually, they were pretty loud to the point Seungcheol would mute his communcator for a while. However, it was eerily quiet this time. Did anyone get caught?

 

He stares up to the sky and was met by the two sattelites that appears to be shimmering in the sky. The contrast of the night sky against the glowing objects within it never ceases to amuse him. It wasn’t every day that Seungcheol got to see this sight. He takes his time to satisfy himself with the view.

 

It was the most freedom he’s ever felt.

 

His hand reached for the bottle of chemicals in his pocket and he pops the cap open. His left hand went to activate his communicator.

 

 _“This is S.Coups,”_ Seungcheol felt some sort of pride to his ‘stagename’, though Minjae had laughed at him for saying that, _“has anyone planted the seeds in the soil yet?”_

_“Stop it man, you really don’t sound cool if you say it that way,”_ came Minjae’s reply. Seungcheol chuckles.

 

_“Well I’m sorry you don’t have a pseudoname. Loser.”_

He suddenly hears a blast in the background and Minjae crying out in pain. Seungcheol’s immediate reaction was to yell out Minjae’s name in panic.

 

_“Minjae!”_

_“You’re gonna get yourself caught if you keep yelling,”_ Minjae mutters out weakly before adding _“...Just get here quickly, please. I-I’m by the large tree on the edge of the field. P-please hurry-”_

_“I’m on my way-!”_

Seungcheol was interrupted by the sound of a blast from behind. He turns his head to find two armored cops standing behind him, armed with rather large weapons. Seungcheol immediately ducks and moves away, too panicked to realize that the bottle’s contents had poured out to the ground.

 

“Stay where you are, criminal!” the shorter cop had yelled out, though Seungcheol immediately made a run for it, disappearing into the tall grass. The shorter cop curses and ran after Seungcheol without a second thought. The taller one just stares at his partner’s disappearing figure.

 

“He could’ve just shot him...running after him is just plain tiring...” the taller one mutters, “but that’s none of my business.”

 

Elsewhere, Seungcheol was frantically calling out the names of his members, though none of them were able to reply, that was until he received a distress call from Tom, saying that he’s being surrounded and Seungcheol had asked for his location, immediately running there once he had received the message.

 

He ducks down into the area where the plants were taller and hid there. He watches as the cop from earlier ran past him. He sighs in relief before he was interrupted with another distress call from Minjae.

 

 _“S-Seungcheol, w-where are you?”_ Minjae sounded out of breath and weak, as if he was in a lot of pain. Seungcheol guesses he’s been hit somewhere vital.

 

 _“Hang on, Minjae,”_ Seungcheol breathes out before taking his time to track the giant tree. He slightly smiles when his eyes landed on the familiar tree. He looks around once more to make sure that neither of the cops was following him before bolting for the tree, praying that Minjae was alright.

 

Seungcheol halted his steps when he suddenly felt a stinging pain on his legs. He fell onto his knees, his whole body shaking in the process. Seungcheol hisses his pain when he hears a gun click behind him, slowly turning to face his now-captor.

 

The taller cop from earlier stood behind him, gun pressed against the back of Seungcheol’s head.

 

“Got ya’,” the man says in a singsong tone, pressing the gun closer to Seungcheol’s head.

 

Seungcheol grits his teeth, forcing himself to stand up, only to fail and fall over once more. The cop moves to grab Seungcheol’s communicator from his ear and destroys it with the heel of his boot.

 

“S-screw you-“ Seuncgheol flinches when the shock goes through his body again.

 

“It was a paralysis bullet,” he explains, “as long as the dart’s stuck in you, I have complete control over your body. If you don’t want me to electrocute you once more, I suggest you stay still.” The man demonstrates the electric shocks by pressing a button on his gun once more, causing Seungcheol to cry out in pain. “Interesting.”

 

“W-what?” grunts the captive.

 

“You haven’t passed out yet,” muses the cop.

 

Seungcheol wanted to roll his eyes, but his mind suddenly went to Minjae, who was somewhere in the field, in pain as well. Seungcheol forces himself to get up, though his captor notices his small struggle and he shut him down by kicking him on the side, causing him to fall over.

 

“I told you, I suggest you stay still, Choi Seungcheol.”

 

Seungcheol’s eyes widen at the sound of his name being spoken by a cop, of all people.

 

“H-how did you...?”

 

Beneath his mask, the police officer smiles.


	4. Four.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mingyu and Seungcheol finally meet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's been hella long and i gotta be honest, i was stuck writing the scene between cheol and han.
> 
> anyways, it's been a difficult month and idk if i can update much

So far, no one had tailed after him, but to Mingyu, it scared him. Either no one’s following him at all and he’s just being paranoid, or someone has been following him but he never noticed.

 

He believes the latter to be true, so he tries his best not to stay too far away from the shadows. Mingyu’s bag suddenly felt heavy at the thought that someone might be following him, perhaps it was Jisoo and Seokmin who were following him, he could somehow convince Seokmin, but Jisoo would be a challenge.

 

Then again, those two clearly had something going on, perhaps Seokmin could do something about Jisoo.

 

Like take the stick out of his ass.

 

Mingyu shivers at the image of that and chose to focus on his current situation. The gates were heavily guarded and security cameras were probably everywhere, always ready to report back to his father. Worst case scenario is that he would have to fight the guards or maybe even Jisoo. The thought made Mingyu feel even more uneasy, his heartbeat picking up its pace.

 

In Mingyu’s bag were more or less pretty useless items in combat. Being an heir to a company, Mingyu was practically spoiled in his whole life. He did take taekwondo lessons for some time, to which he had earned a green belt before quitting.

 

He regrets ever quitting. Who knew it would’ve came in handy?

 

Gripping his bag tightly to his body, Mingyu thought for a while.

 

He remembers the wise words of his mother.

 

_“Don’t act suspicious when trying to do something suspicious.”_

So there he was, walking into the base, greeting the security guards as if he owned the place, to which they waved back to him with large grins. So yes, maybe they suspect nothing. Maybe his father never thought of him running straight into the airport.

 

But it didn’t mean Mingyu wasn’t anxious about sneaking in the open. He was practically drenched under his jacket. He felt his whole body shaking in fear of being caught running away. Though for once, things did go his way and none of the security guards shot him another look after he went our of their sights.

 

So maybe Mingyu panicked over nothing.

 

 

“How did you…?”

 

The man who stood before him shakes his head before lifting his mask open. Seungcheol stares at him with wide eyes, wondering why a cop would do such a thing.

 

Underneath the mask was a young man. It wasn’t anyone Seungcheol recognizes, but the fact that he knew who Seungcheol was…

 

“Who are you?” Seungcheol growls.

 

The young man brushes his bangs back. “Well, I knew you’d ask that. But no, I’m not telling you anything.”

 

Seungcheol scans the cop’s body. “Yoon.”

 

‘Yoon’ smiles. “I guess my surname is all you need to know now,” he steps a bit closer to his captive.

 

“How did you know who I am?” Seungcheol growls, struggling to move his limbs.

 

Officer Yoon taps his chin as if he was deep in thought. “Let’s see…how about I let you in a little a secret?”

 

Seungcheol raises a brow.

 

“Or maybe not,” he snickers before turning around, “I have my ways that I’m sure my higher ups wouldn’t appreciate.”

 

That prompted the captive to force out a laughter. “You are one bad cop aren’t you? You can get yourself sentenced to death for that…” he trails off, suddenly narrowing his eyes at the cop, “where are my teammates?”

 

“You mean your little followers? Somewhere, I guess, dead, probably. Which you should be as well,” Officer Yoon shrugs. Seungcheol’s heart stops at that, his mind immediately went to Minjae. Meanwhile, Officer Yoon looks at Seungcheol once more, snorting as he scans his state, “look at you. Paralyzed, helpless, crying over your supposedly dead friends, however are you going to get out?”

 

“Why aren’t you killing me already?” Seungcheol grits out.

 

“Because you’re too special,” Officer Yoon mockingly coos, “my life up here would be boring not trying to arrest all of you. Besides, you’re probably the most interesting one out of all them in all my years working as a cop. Sad that it’s this simple to catch all of you, no wonder they never put me in the field.”

 

“Fuck you.”

 

“Take me out first, Choi Seungcheol,” was his reply, from the distance, Officer Yoon sees a bunch of choppers heading their location. “Would you look at that? Backup has arrived.” He looks back at Seungcheol with a knowing smile.

 

“Since it wouldn’t be fun to not have you around up here, I have a proposition.”

 

Seungcheol raises his brow.

 

“I’ll let you go,” he says, which resulted in Seungcheol getting a little too excited, “but, if any of your friends are alive, they’re ours to deal with. If I see you trying to rescue them, I will shoot you dead, Choi Seungcheol.”

 

Seungcheol thought for a moment.

 

“And after all of this is done, go out with me, yeah?” Officer Yoon teases, to which Seungcheol nearly chokes on his saliva. Suddenly, Seungcheol was able to move once more, as if the paralyzing bullet never hit him in the first place. He quickly gets up, still staring up to Officer Yoon in disbelief, however, the cop remains indifferent. As if asking the bad guy out was a normal thing to do.

 

“Yoon Jeonghan. Remember my name.”

 

With that, Jeonghan turns away, which was Seungcheol’s queue to finally run.

 

On the way, he sees the bodies of his teammates on the ground, probably dead or paralyzed. Though it seems like the cops who got them went to regroup or were somewhere hiding, waiting for Seungcheol to run into them.

 

Seungcheol could see the end of the field and the choppers were closing by. He hadn’t run into any cops so far and despite the fact that he was so close to running away, he was afraid of what he would say to his teammates if ever sees them again. It would feel like bertaying his own brothers. The risk of being captured, however, was a price he couldn’t pay. He would endanger most of the citizens of the lower class for that and he would be dead. He’d be with his brothers, but he wasn’t sure if endangering people was something he’d want.

 

As terrible as it sounds, hopes that he wouldn’t have to see any of them ever again.

 

“C-Cheol.”

 

Seungcheol’s blood ran cold upon his name being called in that familiar voice.

 

“M-Minjae,” he stutters out, not turning to meet his eyes.

 

“H-help. Please.”

 

He didn’t need to turn around to know that Minjae was on the ground, in pain and paralyzed. He couldn’t even turn around in the first place after all, not after the thoughts he had in mind after running into Yoon Jeonghan.

 

The guilt was eating him and Seungcheol could feel his chest clench even tighter upon hearing Minjae’s whimpers as the man struggles to move. At every sound, his mind went to the times he, Minjae, and his teammates accomplished their missions in pissing off the people of the higher class, or successfully robbing from rich people. The moments whenever they saw the happy looks of the children of the underground, the elbow bump Minjae would give him every time he catches Seungcheol staring at some beauty thanking him for his hard work.

 

Seungcheol nearly looks back.

 

Unfortunately, the sound of grass rustling interrupted his train of thoughts. He chokes out an apology before disappearing into the tall grass, ignoring Minjae’s hand who was reaching out for his ‘brother’.

 

Minjae’s eyes never left Seungcheol’s disappearing figure as the police closes by.

 

 

 

Seungcheol ran and never looked back. He kept his head down as he finally enters the outskirts of the city, doing his best to avoid eye contact with the people on the streets. Though for sure, being the leader of his group meant that he was pretty much well-known, especially with the wanted posters stuck all around the city.

 

Returning to the underground was risky, knowing that they could get information out of his captured teammates or destroy his hometown in order to find Seungcheol and make him turn himself in.

 

Another factor being the fact that Jeonghan knew his true identity. However, he did say he wouldn’t sell his information out since he wasn’t really siding with the government, but Seungcheol couldn’t help but be skeptical about it, but there was no other choice but to trust Jeonghan in this.

 

Seungcheol falls over, leaning against the wall. He tugs his hood lower to his face so no one would recognize his face.

 

He realized that he had nowhere to go.

 

He curses himself for betraying his teammates and his own hometown for selfish reasons. Seungcheol had to know whether he did the right thing to protect his identity and his home for the safety of his teammates, especially Minjae.

 

His train of thoughts was interrupted by a loud sound of a plane engine not far from where he was. Looking up, Seungcheol realizes that he wasn’t far from the space station slash airport.

 

Perhaps it was time for a new start to redeem himself.

 

 

_“Alert! We have an unauthorized entry in building-“_

“Dammit!” Mingyu curses loudly, hands hovering over the thousands of buttons within the spaceship, not knowing how to start the engine. In all his life, he never had proper training on how to fly a spaceship and Mingyu thought he could make do since most spacecrafts come with a manual.

 

“Shit fuck dammit-“ he continuously sputters out curses as he tries pressing every single button he sees. From the glass, he could see security guards and cops running into the building with ray guns in their hands.

 

Mingyu was utterly fucked.

 

It was either he dies being shot, or dies from a suffering marriage with someone he doesn’t love. Then again, who has time for love? Mingyu would rather explore the universe until he gets lost and becomes untraceable.

 

Behind him, Mingyu hears footsteps, indicating that someone else was in the ship.

 

He snaps his head to look behind him, eyes widening at the sight of a man covered in dirt and smelling like a farm. He was clad in a hood and was wearing cargo pants. Mingyu was still in a state of dumbstruck, failing to stay still when the man shoves him away and takes over the control panel.

 

“Hey, who the fuck-“

 

Mingyu froze as he watches the man fumble with the buttons and levers, managing to start the engine. He plops himself on one of the seats and glanes at Mingyu coldly.

 

“Kid, if you don’t sit your ass down, I will, _will_ , shoot you on the spot,” he pulls a ray gun out of nowhere and points it at Mingyu.

 

“O-okay,” Mingyu stutters out before sitting down and pulling his seatbelt on, nearly choking himself in the process.

 

“Hold on tight,” Seungcheol narrows his eyes at the sight of the security guards and cops coming in close. He grips a lever before pushing it forward, the engine burns up and before Mingyu knew it, the spaceship left the ground and Seungcheol drives it out of the building, by out of the building means bursting through the wall, much to Mingyu’s shock.

 

“Dude, what the hell!?” Mingyu hollers, looking behind to see the mess Seungcheol made, “are you fucking crazy!?”

 

Seungcheol licks his lips, grip on the lever growing tighter. “I’m Choi Seungcheol.” He makes a sharp turn, which nearly threw Mingyu into another direction.

 

Mingyu’s eyes widen even more, pointing at the elder. “You’re that S.Coups guy!”

 

“Was!” Seungcheol yells back over the loud sound of the engine as they ascended up. As they got high enough, Seungcheol’s eyes darts over to a certain button and smirks to himself.

 

“Kid!”

 

“What!?” Mingyu yells, still in panic over the situation he got himself in.

 

“What’s your name!?”

 

“Mingyu! I’m Kim Mingyu!” Seungcheol snickers upon recognizing the name.

 

“Mingyu! Hold on tight!” Seungcheol’s hand reaches over while the spaceship ascends higher as seconds pass. Mingyu watches him in confusion.

 

“Wait, why-!?”

 

Mingyu cuts himself off with a scream as the ship’s speed reaches its maximum level, while Seungcheol smirks to himself.

 

Here’s to a new start.


	5. Five.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> seungcheol and mingyu escape planet. jisoo and seokmin are sent to find them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well okay, it's been a while but. i finally got to see our boys at Ideal Cut!!!! and i miss them so much :(((( it was the best concert I ever went to as well uwu
> 
> but yes. im in the midst of an exam week but my brain got fried from studying and i napped too long today so i wrote this chapter to relax myself a little.

They have left the atmosphere, though it obviously wasn’t the end of the bumpy ride. To say that Seungcheol was a reckless pilot was an understatement, the man was downright the worst pilot Mingyu has ever seen. Of course, the police was quick to follow them, which caused Mingyu to wonder what the hell did he just get involved in. Neither men managed to sit down, thus causing them to hang on to whatever was the closest to them and hold on tight. Seungcheol did sit down, though he wasn’t wearing a seatbelt. As expected from a criminal, Mingyu thought.

 

“Dude! Can you even pilot a goddamn spaceship!?” Mingyu exclaimed over the loud alarms within the ship, indicating that they had been hit somewhere, and is most likely a vital spot. Mingyu grits his teeth when the guy ignores him in favor of doing a barrel roll, which made Mingyu nearly throw up.

 

“Sorry Gyu! Can’t hear you!” the elder yells back with a smile on his face, slightly glancing backwards to see if Mingyu is still in one piece.

 

There was a another blast that hit the spaceship once more, and Mingyu sighs heavily when the alarms became noisier than before. He stumbles forward and latches onto Seungcheol’s shoulder.

 

“Move! I’m flying this thing myself!”

 

Seungcheol raises a brow, but before he knew it, he was being shoved aside by the taller boy. He didn’t bother fighting back as Mingyu manages to stabilize the ship and drove them far from the cops. “I need you to check the damages, alright?” Mingyu points towards the door. Seungcheol nods and went to work without another word.

 

They finally outran the cops and turns out, the ship’s damage wasn’t that bad, but the ship was pretty sensitive. It wasn’t anything that would keep them from advancing.

 

With that, they finally sat down on seats available, seatbelts on. Mingyu was drenched in sweat from head to toe, while Seungcheol’s outfit looked as if he had been roughed up pretty bad.

 

“Woah, you’re one hell of a pilot,” Seungcheol muses, looking at Mingyu.

 

Mingyu scoffs. “I’d say the same to you but definitely not in a good way.”

 

Seungcheol snorts. “Tough love huh, rich boy?”

 

The younger laughs dryly at the nickname, eyes still focused on the view in front of him. “Don’t start with that,” Mingyu shot back, “I told you my name.”

 

“So did I,” there was a pause, “you’re not going to turn me in, are you?” Mingyu was the son of an influential person, Seungcheol had to be very wary around him.

 

Mingyu thought for a moment. “If it weren’t for the given situation, I would. You _are_ a pretty well-known criminal. But…I’m…kind of on a run too, so no, I won’t” Mingyu admits, prompting Seungcheol to raise a brow.

 

“Oh?”

 

Mingyu didn’t feel like sharing his personal life with a stranger, a criminal even, but it wasn’t like he had anyone else right now. Seungcheol wouldn’t actually care.

 

“Arranged marriage,” Mingyu groans, “with some girl from another planet. 24CR-T I think.” Mingyu absentmindedly turns off the ship’s tracker.

 

Seungcheol whistles. “That’s not too far from here. We’re already on good terms with them, I really don’t see the point in political marriage.”

 

Mingyu shrugs. “It’s for company expansion purposes as well and I guess I’m at the age where I should get married-“

 

“You look really young though,” Seungcheol cuts him off. “You should be living your life if you’re not ready to be tied down in marriage or having a family.”

 

Mingyu groans in frustration. “I really can’t believe I’m having this conversation with a criminal of all people.” Mingyu felt something hit his head lightly, he looks down to see a crumpled piece of paper on the ground. “Real mature, man.”

 

“First of all, I’m no crinimal,” Seungcheol began, “the things I do that you people refer to as crimes…I was doing it for the greater good.”

 

Mingyu bites his lower lip. He knew that Seungcheol came from the underground city, that he was part of the marginalized people that the society has been trying to erase from the upper area. Truthfully, Mingyu did not agree with such actions, but what could he do? Until he takes over his father’s spot, he had no power. He understood Seungcheol’s intentions, though growing up in a family that doctrinates you that those people were violent, dirty criminals who ruin the ‘perfect society’, thus why there’s a valid reason they were thrown in the underground city, made it difficult not to see people like Seungcheol in a bad light.

 

“I understand,” Mingyu replies, “I…actually get why you and your people do it.” _I just don’t appreciate you burning my family’s crops, thank you very much_. “It’s horrible of us to drive you people and the planet’s natives to some shithole. I honestly have no idea why it happened in the first place.”

 

Seungcheol sighs. “I’m glad you’re not that close minded, but you can tone down the hositility whenever you refer to me as ‘criminal’.” Mingyu ducks his head in shame, but quickly looks up again.

 

“I’m…sorry,” Mingyu mutters, he glances to his side to look at Seungcheol. The elder was looking at him with a blank look, arms crossed. Mingyu’s grip on the steering wheel tightens, “listen, it’ll take a while to get used to this, but I’m trying, alright? I didn’t have the best impression of you guys since well, I knew of you when you burned my family’s crops and I really didn’t appreciate that.”

 

Seungcheol’s face shifts into a look of amusement. “Yeah? I guess I’m sorry about that too…but that farmer who takes care of your crops? A complete asshole.”

 

Mingyu chuckles. “Damn right he is. When I was younger, he hit me with a hoe for accidentally stepping on a carrot.”

 

The two laugh at that.

 

Seungcheol smiles after his laughter dies down. “Alright, you aren’t as bad as I thought you’d be. I actually thought you’re a typical spoiled brat from a rich family, but I was wrong, I guess.”

 

Mingyu nodded. “All is forgiven. I want to apologize once more I guess, and for a lot of reasons…” Mingyu trails off after Seungcheol nods understandingly, “so uh, where to now?”

 

Seungcheol looks at the control panel and shakes his head in disappointment. “Here I thought you were the experienced pilot, _captain_. We’re clearly running out of fuel and even though the damages back there aren’t bad, there’s no knowing what would happen if we let it be and the cops catch up on us.”

 

Mingyu sighs. “I…guess you’re right,” he mutter softly, “can you check the GPS? What’s the closest planet here?”

 

Seungcheol smirks. “24CR-T.”

 

Mingyu curses loudly.

 

“If we go any further, we might risk getting caught by the cops from our place. We need speed to at least get out of the stellar system and it won’t be a short journey,” Seungcheol reminds with an obnoxious tone, just to spite Mingyu.

 

The younger seemed lost in thought, face scrunching in confusion and irritation.

 

Seungcheol taps his foot loudly.

 

“Fine!” Mingyu finall says, moving the ship lower before making a turn. “But we’re laying low! I don’t want to see you starting unnecessary fights-“

 

“There you go, stereotyping me once more,” Seungcheol hisses, making Mingyu shrink.

 

“I’m sorry,” he squeaks out.

 

Seungcheol laughs at Mingyu’s dejected form.

 

“By the way,” Mingyu says with a hesitant tone after a moment of silence.

 

“Hm?”

 

“Why did you run away? Didn’t you have teammates?”

 

 

“You what!?”

 

Seokmin shrinks at his boss’ loud tone, while Jisoo remains indifferent, though Seokmin saw him flinch a little when the elder man stepped forward.

 

“We- we lost Mingyu- _them_ , captain,” Jisoo affirms.

 

“How!? Forget S.Coups, you had one _damn_ job and that was to watch after Mr. Kim’s son!”

 

“They stole one of the prototype models of the company’s latest spacecraft, Helios, which has an unimaginable speed-“ Seokmin’s words were cut off as his boss slams his hand against the wall.

 

“This isn’t right at all, Mr. Kim wouldn’t be pleased,” he glowers, “his son is on the run with an international and soon to be intergalactic criminal. What the hell were you thinking when you let them get away!?”

 

As if on queue, Mr. Kim, Mingyu’s father, enters the room with a dark look. Jisoo and Seokmin eyes him as he makes his way towards their boss.

 

“You will return my son within 3 days and do not let the Lee’s find out about this or they will call off the wedding,” Mr. Kim says sharply. He turns around to eye Jisoo and Seokmin. “You two.”

 

Jisoo and Seokmin both looked at Mr. Kim’s eyes.

 

“I want you to retrieve my son and arrest that…criminal in 72 hours,” Mr. Kim orders, “I will have your boss demote your positions if you fail to do it in time, or _fire_ you both if you fail to do the mission.”

 

“Back to the weed farm, huh?” Seokmin jokingly whispers to Jisoo, earning a sharp elbow to his stomach.

 

“Understood, Mr. Kim, we won’t fail you,” Jisoo says sharply.

 

Their boss seemed to have calmed down after Mr. Kim gave them another chance and gestured the two cops that they were allowed to leave the room. After bowing, they exited the room.

 

“How the hell are we going to find them?” Seokmin whines after they walked far enough from the door. “It’s like finding needles in a haystack!”

 

Jisoo chuckles.

 

“They probably turned off the tracker by now, but I did hear we hit their ship pretty hard,” Jisoo surmises, “I’m guessing they’re going to the closest planet within the stellar system.” Jisoo looks at Seokmin with a knowing look.

 

Seokmin raises a brow.

 

Jisoo deflates. “Come on, you know this.”

 

“Home?” Seokmin guesses.

 

Jisoo smiles. “Correct. They’re going to try and lay low so they’re probably satying away from cities, so they’ll be hanging around the slums looking for a cheap repairman. Let’s get going before they fix the ship and leave 24CR-T,” Jisoo drags Seokmin by his hand and the younger laughs at his gesture.

 

“You’re such a gentleman, Joshua Hong,” Seokmin muses. They stayed silent as they walked out of the building, the town’s local intergalactic police department.

 

Seokmin halts Jisoo from walking any further as they left the building’s main entrance.

 

“What’s wrong?” Jisoo turns around to find a flustered-looking Seokmin.

 

“Uh,” Seokmin starts, “since we’ll probably be super busy the next three days and you know that I’m sort of, well, _clingy_ you see-“

 

“You want to fuck before we leave?” Jisoo raises a brow, prompting Seokmin’s face to flush even more, but smile wider.

 

“Wow, that was pretty forward of you,” Seokmin chuckles.

 

Jisoo’s eyebrow twitches, but smiles, nevertheless. “Seokmin, we’ve been dating for God knows how long, there’s nothing embarrassing about it. So are you down or nah?”

 

Seokmin frantically nods.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> next chapter, we'll finally be introduced to hansol and (maybe) wonwoo, bc idk how long the next chapter will be


	6. Six.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mingyu and Seungcheol 'bond'. Hansol gets stuck in a predicament.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> seems like i couldn't fit wonu in this chapter BUT he will appear in the next one!

“Can’t we just warp all the way there like we did to lose the cops from earlier?” Seungcheol grumbles impatiently. Mingyu, on the other hand, snickers at the elder’s grumpy face. The taller was currenly reading through the manual book of the spacecraft.

 

“Patience, old man. We’re barely hanging on right now,” Mingyu seemed amused by the groan that followed. “But if you’re that bored, I just found out how to play music in this thing.”

 

Seungcheol quirks a brow. “Oh?”

 

Mingyu nodded, grinning. “Yep, if I just do this…” his hand went to touch a small screen by the control panel, while Seungcheol watches Mingyu tamper with it.

 

_“_ _Uh, let's go to the beach, each-”_

 

“Oh _hell_ no-“ Seungcheol jumps from his seat and saunters over to Mingyu, “we are _not_ playing Nicki Minaj in my ship.”

 

Mingyu snickers, pushing Seungcheol away lightly, “ _your_ ship? For your information, I got here first so you sit the fuck back down, Robin Hood.” The younger was smiling smugly at Seungcheol.

 

The vigilante curses the younger for having longer limbs than he did as he fails to reach the control panel.

 

“Well I’m older and that makes me the boss you!” Seungcheol topples over to Mingyu, who still refused to move from his spot, “and as the boss of you, I say that we are _not_ playing Starships in this fucking spacecraft-“

 

_“Get on the floor, floor, like it's your last chance-“_

Mingyu was still grinning mischievously. “Well your job is to be a hardass and get us out of this mess you landed us in. My job is to make our little quest less tense, and I say we play Starships- oof!” Seungcheol accidentally elbows Mingyu’s stomach and manages to get his hands on the control panel.

 

_“Starships were meant to fly_

_Hands up and touch the sky_

_Can't stop 'cause we’re so high_

_Let's do this one more time-“_

 

“How do you turn off this damn thing!?” Seungcheol curses, while Mingyu was helplessly struggling underneath him. The younger may have longer limbs, but Seungcheol’s arms were thick as a trunk and Mingyu felt like being held down by a bunch of bricks.

 

“I’m- not telling-!” Mingyu wheezes out.

 

“Fuck you, Kim Mingyu,” the elder began tapping on random buttons on the screen, much to Mingyu’s dismay.

 

“Hey hold on, don’t do that-“

 

_“Let's do this one last time_

_Hands up-_

_We're higher than a motherf-“_

The song suddenly stops and the ship was silent once more. Mingyu whines out loud while Seungcheol grins victoriously and gets back on his feet, much to Mingyu’s relief. He went to ruffle Mingyu’s hair in a patronizing manner.

 

“Sorry, kid. Only good songs allowed in this spacecraft- or none at all.”

 

Mingyu swats his hand away. “Excuse you, that was good music. Your taste in music is just that bad, old man.” The younger tried to turn the music back on, though it failed to do so. “What the hell did you even do to this? You sly fox!”

 

“Whatever, Prince Charming,” there was another moment of silence after that, “I left them, by the way.”

 

Mingyu flashes him a look of confusion.

 

“My teammates. I abandoned them,” Seungcheol confesses, “that’s why I couldn’t return home. I couldn’t face everyone else and my teammates’ families. They might be dead for all I know and it’s all my fault they ended up that way,” Seungcheol’s gaze never left the road before him, he was mesmerized by the open space with countless of stars decorating the road in front of him. “I could’ve saved them if I weren’t to occupied on trying to save my sorry ass.”

 

Mingyu swallows nervously, feeling like he wasn’t supposed to hear this.

 

“It’s not your fault,” he blurted out, surprising Seungcheol.

 

However, the elder just shook his head and looked ahead once more.

 

~•~

 

Jisoo and Seokmin were making last minute preparations before taking off with the rest of the crew to capture Seungcheol and return Mingyu back home. However, the door to the break room in the police station slides open, revealing a rather young-looking man.

 

“Officer Hong, Officer Lee, good to see you.”

 

Jisoo scowls upon seeing who walked into the room, while Seokmin swallows.

 

“Officer Yoon. Great to see you, it’s been a while,” Seokmin answers rather hesitantly, eyes shifting between his boyfriend and the oldest in the room, confused why there was a one-sided tension between the two.

 

Jeonghan smiles at Seokmin as he walks over to Jisoo, who refused to make eye contact with the older, placing an arm around the younger’s shoulder. “Why so cold, Jisoo?”

 

Jisoo pushes his arm away.

 

“I’m not talking to you.”

 

“You just did.”

 

“Thanks for letting him get away,” Jisoo hisses, “now we’re stuck in a wild goose chase, getting Mr. Kim’s son back and catching the fiend.”

 

Jeonghan laughs. “So that’s why you’re so cold to me? Suck it up, Jisoo, it’s part of your job.”

 

Jisoo couldn’t help but grin at that, pushing Jeonghan away even further. “Shut up, Jeonghan. I don’t need your input.”

 

Seokmin’s shoulder visibly relaxes once the two started laughing again. Jeonghan and Jisoo, trained together when the two were still cadets during military training, it was unfortunate that Jeonghan had been stationed in a different planet, but at least Jisoo had Seokmin.

 

“How the hell did he get away then? No one escapes you unless you let them,” Jisoo asks, sounding pretty skeptical. Jeonghan looks away from his friend’s gaze.

 

“He was different. I let my guard down,” he sighs.

 

Jisoo frowns. “You need to be careful next time…if only you could’ve came with us.”

 

Jeonghan shook his head. “I’m afraid I can’t do that. I have other duties to take care of first here,” he pats Jisoo’s back before turning to Seokmin, “Seokmin, take care of him for me, okay?” he laughs at Seokmin’s flustered reply.

 

“Y-yeah.”

 

“Oh my god, Jeonghan, shut up,” Jisoo grumbles, “if anything, Seokmin needs more attention that I do.”

 

“I do not!”

 

Jeonghan shakes his head. “Anyways, Mr. Kim’s side has already predicted where Seu- S.Coups and Mr. Kim’s son might be. Worst case scenario, our Robin Hood is holding him hostage and threatening him. But I did receive word that Mr. Kim’s son left willingly…?” He looks at Jisoo and Seokmin knowingly.

 

“He…didn’t seem keen on the whole wedding arrangement,” Seokmin confesses, “he probably took the chance to escape when S.Coups tried to leave the planet as well.”

 

Jeonghan frowns at that. “Understandable, I suppose.”

 

However, Jisoo shakes his head. “Kids can be irresponsible nowadays.”

 

“Hey now-“

 

“Officer Yoon,” a voice calls out, “we have been summoned to the main office.” By the door stood Jeonghan’s partner, Lee Chan, who had his arms crossed and was leaning against the door frame.

 

Jeonghan snickers. “It’s rare to see you without your mask, Chan,” Jeonghan faces Seokmin and Jisoo once more. “That’s my queue to leave. Good luck to you both.”

 

Jeonghan and Chan leaves the room, which left Seokmin and Jisoo staring at each other.

 

“Somehow, I feel like this is going to be the longest 72 hours ever,” Seokmin commented.

 

~•~

 

“Understood?”

 

“Yes sir!”

 

“All cadets must return to their rooms in 10 PM. Dismissed!” With another salute, everyone separated and went their own ways, however, Hansol remained on his spot, frowning.

 

“Hey, man, you good?” someone’s voice snapped Hansol out of it. He turns to see his friends looking at him with concerned looks. Hansol forces a smile out.

 

“Y-yeah, I’m fine. You guys can go ahead if you want. I need to talk to Captain Choi for a second,” Hansol replies. His friends shrug and bid him farewell before walking away. Hansol sighs and stuffs both hands into his pockets and walks towards the podium in front of the room.

 

Choi Hansol. 19. Cadet.

 

There wasn’t much to him except for the fact that his father was Captain Choi and an infamous intergalactice police officer. Hansol dreams of following his father’s footsteps and he’s thought about it since he was a child. He lives in the capital of Country A in 24CR-T, home to many famous and important figures. But to Hansol, he felt like he was living in any other small city in the planet.

 

Hansol watches his father leave with the other higher ranked officers leave the room. Hansol hesitates whether he should follow him or not, afraid that he might interrupt soemthing he shouldn’t even know about.

 

However, to his surprise, his father glances backwards, spotting Hansol and gestures him to follow. The young man nods and tails after his father, who separated himself from his group.

 

“Hansol,” he greets, “is there something you wish to talk to me about?”

 

Hansol nodded.

 

“Yeah. It’s about the thing you told me earlier in private,” Hansol answers, looking up to meet his dad’s eyes, “are you only sending me on the night patrol? Don’t you usually send three people? One cadet and two trained personnel?”

 

His father’s mouth twitches. “I trust that you are able to do this on your own. You are by far one of the best cadets in this batch. Although there is also another reason why the two officers can’t join you.” Right now, Hansol felt like he was talking to his father instead of Captain Choi, which made him visibly less tense.

 

“What happened?”

 

“We have received word that an infamous criminal had stolen a spacecraft called Helios from the planet 11AL-N and is headed this way to refuel and fix the spacecraft. I have also received information that Ms. Lee Sooyoung’s fiancé is held captive in the spacecraft,” he replies, “we will be searching all possible places they might be hiding in.”

 

Hansol’s eyes widen. “Damn, that sounds…”

 

“Annoying, I know,” his father deadpans in a joking manner, catching Hansol off-guard, “so yes, do be careful on your patrol tonight.”

 

“What if I run into them?”

 

“You won’t, my men will find them first,” his father retorted.

 

“Yeah what if I run into them first?” Hansol presses on. It’s no secret that being part of the intergalactic police force was a dream of his ever since he was a child. Missions such as finding infamous criminals excited Hansol, it was as if he’s living his childhood dream. “I mean, I have to take action wouldn’t I?”

 

However, his father remains cross about the issue. “Do not engage and call for any of your senior officers or straight to me.”

 

Hansol frowns, “but Jisoo and Seokmin are the only senior officers I know and they aren’t here-“

 

“They are heading here to collect Kim Mingyu, Sooyoung’s fiancé, and arrest S.Coups. They should be arriving in an hour or more, so do contact them if you cross paths with S.Coups or Kim Mingyu.”

 

“Holy- S.Coups is the criminal on the run?” Hansol asks in disbelief. His father nearly jumps at Hansol’s raised tone.

 

“Not too loud, son,” Captain Choi hisses, “but yes. He’s escaped the planet with Kim Mingyu in hostage. Officer Hong and Officer Lee’s team are on their tail. I don’t want you anywhere near our targets, understood?”

 

Hansol furrows his brows. “But dad-“

 

“ _Understood_?”

 

Hansol sighs. “Yes, dad.” His father gives him a tight smile before patting his back and walking away, leaving his son alone. Hansol watches him leave before sighing in frustration. Seems like no one will be there to evaluate Hansol during his night patrol.

 

He stomps off the building in an uncool manner.

 

Since no one would be there to evaluate his night patrol – as usual – Hansol sat himself on a small hill near the junkyard Lee Jihoon owns. Hansol was supposed to be evaluated long ago, though his father seems to be fond of moving the dates and keeping him as a cadet for a long time.

 

His father could be difficult sometimes.

 

His father hadn’t really apporved of Hansol following his footsteps and it took a lot of begging for him to let Hansol join the military training as a cadet for the Intergalactic Police Froce.

 

Hansol’s thoughts were interrupted by a loud noise, which sounded like a rather large object falling-

 

“Well fuck me sideways,” Hansol mutters to himself, eyes wide at the sight of a spacecraft nearly crash-landing into Jihoon’s junkyard, to which Hansol is sure the older man would throw a fit about.

 

Hansol jumps up and slides down the small hill, running towards the crash site.

 

“Holy fuck,” he blurted out as soon he reaches the spot where the spacecraft had landed. The doors open, revealing two familiar figures that Hansol had spoken about with his father earlier.

 

Mingyu and Seungcheol froze at the sight of a flabbergasted Hansol.

 

“Fuck,” all three of them said at once.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ugh idk how to english anymore


	7. Seven.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Soonyoung manages to get Wonwoo out of his room. Meanwhile, Mingyu and Seungcheol try to convince Hansol that they're who he thinks they are.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im sorta invested in this fic??? ik im kinda dumb with space and sci fi stuff, but hhh i rlly like the storyline, personally.

“Wonwoo, come on, it’s been a whole year,” Soonyoung pleaded, pressing his cheek against the door, groaning when the younger didn’t respond to his whines. “Oh my God, just open the damn door or I’m breaking in.”

 

On the other side of the door, Wonwoo sat on his bed, staring up to the ceiling with a blank look, ignoring his best friend’s futile attempts to get him to open the door. Wonwoo didn’t even have the energy to get rid of Soonyoung, though he was rather worried if Soonyoung would actually break down his door.

 

However, it wasn’t the first time Soonyoung had threatened to break the door down. The slightly elder male had been trying to get Wonwoo to get up and hang out with him all year, but the younger simply turns him down everytime, only going with him when Soonyoung is being extra persistent.

 

It started several weeks after Wonwoo’s boyfriend, Junhui, who was an intergalactic space police officer, went on exploration mission to another planet. Wonwoo was devestated to learn that they have lost contact of their ship as it had crash landed on said planet. They had searched for the ship’s remains or any survivors, however, those efforts ended up useless as the ship completely disappeared with no trace.

 

The last thing Junhui and Wonwoo had said to each other weren’t the sweetest things either. They had been fighting for the last several weeks before the mission, and if Wonwoo had to be honest, he wanted to break it off with Junhui, but because of the mission, he felt obligated to support his boyfriend until he returned.

 

Junhui’s family was pretty conservative and didn’t really approve of Junhui’s relationship with a non-human being.

 

Sort of.

 

Wonwoo is a half breed. Half human and half whatever species his mother was as he was born with pointy cat-like ears and a tail. He guesses that his mother wasn’t from the same planet he currently lives in as he has never seen anyone with similar traits. Aside from the obvious physical characteristics, his mother seemed to have passed down extra sensitive smelling and hearing.

 

His parents weren’t fond of the idea of Junhui dating a non-human and Junhui was slowly manipulated by his parents’ words. It made Wonwoo very mad and ever time they spoke of it, it always ended up in a huge fight between the two.

 

Despite all of that, Wonwoo still couldn’t help but feel heartbreak at the thought of Junhui.

 

“Wonwoo, I am breaking down your door, whether you like it or not!”

 

Wonwoo jumps from his bed and rushes towards the door when he hears Soonyoung roar as he charges for his door.

 

“Don’t!” Wonwoo exclaims the moment he opens the door.

 

Soonyoung smirks.

 

“I knew that would work,” he says, “come on, let’s do something.”

 

“Soonyoung, it’s late at night and I have a shift at the flower shop tomorrow,” Wonwoo drones.

 

“Whatever, we can do something else,” Soonyoung thought for a moment, his face suddenly lights up, “hey let’s annoy Jihoon.”

 

“Let’s not do that.”

 

“You’re really no fun,” Soonyoung narrows his eyes, “we’re going to annoy Jihoon tonight until he lets us try his prototypes of the hoverboards he’s making.”

 

Wonwoo bites his lower lip. That was pretty tempting. Wonwoo has had his eyes on Jihoon’s self-designed hoverboards, something about it looked a lot more tempting than the ones in stores, plus Wonwoo didn’t have the money to afford such things.

 

“Tempting.”

 

Soonyoung grabs his wrist.

 

“Then let’s go.”

 

Wonwoo lets himself be pulled by his best friend.

 

~•~

 

“Holy fuck you’re S.Coups,” Hansol spoke in one breath, he turns to the taller man who stood frozen next to the criminal, “and you’re probably Sooyoung’s fiancé.” Hansol was still standing in front of the two infamous figures, jaw probably on the floor. However, Hansol admits that he’s never seen what S.Coups and Sooyoung’s fiancé actually looks like.

 

Both Mingyu and Seungcheol looked panicked at the moment, afraid that the young man would snitch on them, and he definitely will do that judging by his cadet uniform.

 

Mingyu turns to Seungcheol, his entire body drenched with sweat. The bad landing certainly did a number on his body.

 

“Seungcheol, what do we do!?” Mingyu whisper shouted, occasionally glancing at the wide-eyed blonde boy in front of them.

 

“Uh, not mention my name in front of him?” Seungcheol retorts, digging his index finger to Mingyu’s chest out of anger.

 

Mingyu slaps his mouth shut once realization hit him.

 

Seungcheol sighs heavily before walking up to the blonde cadet. He cringes at the sight of his uniform before looking up to his eyes with a forced smile.

 

“Look, kid,” Seungcheol starts, trying to appear intimidating in front of the young police cadet, “I don’t know and I don’t care who the hell you are, but I don’t appreciate people suspecting me over some shit, and I suggest you scram if you want to live to see another day-“ Seungcheol’s hand went for the small ray gun he had equipped.

 

“Wha- when the hell did you get that!?” Mingyu yells from afar.

 

Hansol blinks.

 

His father did tell him to contact Seokmin, Jisoo, or any other senior officers if he ran into S.Coups or Mingyu.

 

“Are you r-really S.Coups?” Hansol stammers, finger pointing towards the man who was standing in front of him, his legs unconsciously moves backwards.

 

Seungcheol was silent for a moment, he went to open his mouth, only to be interrupted by Mingyu.

 

“No! He’s not!” Mingyu exclaims, rushing into where Hansol and Seungcheol stood. Hansol snaps his head towards the tallest, while Seungcheol looks at Mingyu with a raised brow. “I mean, we’re not who you think you are.”

 

Hansol narrows his eyes skeptically. “I’m pretty sure I’ve seen your face somewhere,” he points at Seungcheol, who visibly tenses.

 

Mingyu nervously smiles and walks towards Hansol, trapping him in a side hug. “Haha! No! I’ll tell you what, see, we’re a bunch of jobless guys traveling through the stellar system because why the hell not! Unfortunately, our ship got hit by an asteroid and we’re pretty roughed up as you can see,” he gestures at the spacecraft,” all we wanted to do was blast Nicki Minaj and get lost, but seems like fate had different ideas and forced us to ‘land’ here.” Seungcheol looked like he was ready to punch Mingyu.

 

Hansol taps his chin.

 

“My higher ups told me to do a night patrol and contact them if I see any suspicious activity,” he glares at Mingyu and Seungcheol, “and you guys are pretty suspicious characters.”

 

“Don’t be too skeptical, kid,” Mingyu cringes at Seungcheol’s forced smile.

 

Hansol quirks a brow.

 

“Then who the hell are you guys? The ship doesn’t look like any ship you ‘jobless dudes’ can afford and your beat up ship looks like an armada of battleships came at you,” Hansol surmises, scrunching his nose in disgust at the appearance of the spacecraft.

 

“Hey now that’s rude, maybe I had a job before and managed to save up and purchase this,” Mingyu fakes a scoff, “anyway, do you possibly know where we can get this fixed? Preferably anywhere out of the city since my friend here has a really bad boner for shopping in every city we visit.” Seungcheol kicks Mingyu’s shin, though it went unnoticed by Hansol who deep in thought.

 

“Well, I know one place, but…” Hansol moves away from Mingyu’s hold, giving the taller a good look and holy hell, he was tall as fuck. “You two seem really suspicious. Tell me your names.”

 

While Hansol was an ambitious cadet, he wasn’t the most confident. There were times where he’s unsure if he’s doing the right thing or not, if he has the right person or not, and so on. Making quick decisions was a complete nightmare for him and stresses him pretty easy.

 

“I’m Seungcheol, I used to be a farmer in 11AL-N,” Seungcheol says a bit too quickly, “This is…Mingyu, he used to sell weed.” Now it was Mingyu’s turn to glare at Seungcheol.

 

“Huh, alright then,” innocent until proven guilty, they say, and Hansol has no proof either of them are wanted people, though he makes sure to keep his guard up and search up pictures later, “I’m Hansol, police cadet.” Hansol relaxes when Seungcheol’s hand finally moves away from his ray gun.

 

“Alright, nice to mee you, Hansol,” Mingyu says, “now about the mechanic who can fix our ship…?”

 

Hansol smiles a little. “You see where you guys landed? It’s basically an entire shithole owned by a friend of mine, Jihoon. Dude basically disconnected himself from every city or town and lives alone here. Something about not liking the system or so. He’s also good at fixing things.”

 

Mingyu’s face lights up. “That sounds great, can you lead us to him?”

 

“Unfortunately, he’s probably asleep right now, but we can crash his place I suppose, he won’t mind since you guys are with me.” Hansol went to inspect the ship’s damage, “what kind of asteroid even hit you guys? It looked like you fought an entire armada?”

 

“A huge one.”

 

“A really big one.”

 

“Uh yeah, right,” Hansol hesitates. Even if this Seungcheol or Mingyu guy were the wanted ‘criminals’, it’s not like it’s any of Hansol’s business to book them.

 

Or he could arrest them himself, or at least take them to the police station by himself. He didn’t need his dad, Seokmin, or Jisoo. Perhaps his father will finally trust him with something for once and he could gain his father’s respect just like he respected him.

 

“We really appreciate this, man,” Mingyu grins, “it’s rare to find good people like you.” Seungcheol just nodded to Mingyu’s words, which causes Hansol to flush a little.

 

Hansol smiles to himself as he guides Mingyu and Seungcheol to Jihoon’s ‘house’, which was coincidentally located not far from the crash site.

 

However, deep down, Hansol felt bad since Mingyu and (maybe) Seungcheol seemed like nice guys. Even if Mingyu did illegal business in the past.

 

 

~•~

 

Jeonghan and Chan walks out of the office with different expressions. On one hand, Jeonghan had a blank and tired look, while Chan looked pretty excited. They had just been told that they’re going retrieve S.Coups once Jisoo and Seokmin captures him and arrest him.

 

“Can’t they send anyone else to do it?” Jeonghan grumbles as he and Chan headed towards the locker room. “They have the balls to trust me again after I let Seungcheol get away?” If Jeonghan had to be honest, the true reason why he was reluctant to chase after Seungcheol and Mingyu was because of the promise he made with the elder.

 

Chan’s smile falls and he pats Jeonghan’s back. “Don’t put yourself down like that! I’m sure you had a momentary slip up and it’ll never happen again! We weren’t exactly prepared that night either, boss just suddenly told us to gear up and head to the field.”

 

“Yeah…” Jeonghan stares blankly at the contents of his locker.

 

“Besides,” Chan continues, “we already caught most of his teammates.”

 

Jeonghan quirks a brow and turns to Chan.

 

“’Most’?”

 

Chan nodded. “Aside from Seungcheol and one other guy, we have them all in captive. This one guy…Jaemin? Minjae? I don’t know, but boss and the higher ups took him with them. Dunno what’s gonna happen to him.”

 

“I see.”

 

“You don’t really seem excited about this,” Chan went on, “usually, you’d have that condescencing smirk and cocky posture whenever we’re told that we have a mission outside of the planet.”

 

“I’m just tired,” Jeonghan smiles weakly, ruffling Chan’s hair, “don’t worry about me.”

 

Chan groans at that and swats the elder’s hand away.

 

“I take it back, go back to being gloomy.”

 

Despite their obvious differences in opinions, Jeonghan was glad that Chan was his partner. They were 4 years apart with Jeonghan being the older one, but Jeonghan held high respect towards his junior. However, the only downside being Chan’s ambitious self when it comes to arresting S.Coups. It was no secret that Jeonghan didn’t have low opinions towards S.Coups unlike everyone else in the police force, but Chan was perhaps the number 1 S.Coups anti.

 

“I can’t wait till we get that guy and the world will finally be at peace,” Chan then says when the two were ready to leave the room.

 

“How do you know no one’s going to follow his footsteps?” Jeonghan asks him, “maybe we should be giving the people of the lower class justice before we assume that they’re different from us from the core.”

 

Chan shrugs. “Dunno, our ruler seems indifferent on that, we can’t do much.”

 

Unfortunately, Chan was right.


	8. Eight.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> wonwoo meets jihoon's guests. jisoo and seokmin arrive.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i wrote this chapter last month, i barely have time to write fics such as this lmao.
> 
> but anyways do enjoy.

“Jihoon!” Hansol calls out as he knocks the door. Mingyu and Seungcheol nervously looks at each other, afraid that this ‘Jihoon’ would recognize either or both of them. Hansol was fortunately a gullible person, though they weren’t sure about Jihoon.

 

The door suddenly opens, revealing a man of short height with dark eyes and dark circles underneath them too. His hair was messy and he was clad in a dirty-looking large shirt and sweatpants.

 

“What.”

 

Jihoon looks up to Hansol with tired eyes, who smiles in return, he then looks behind the young man and narrows his eyes.

 

“Who the hell are you two?”

 

Mingyu and Seungcheol visibly relaxes.

 

Hansol glances behind him. “They’re travellers from another planet. Their ship’s pretty wrecked and they were hoping you can fix it.”

 

Jihoon blinks.

 

“Do you know what time it is, Hansol?” Jihoon drones.

 

Hansol smiles sheepishly and shrugs.

 

“Dunno.”

 

“Well it’s my bedtime, that’s for sure,” Jihoon grumbles, he glares at the two newcomers, “you two, what are your names?”

 

“I’m Mingyu,” Mingyu replies, “and this is Seungcheol.”

 

Jihoon looked like he was deep in thought. He suddenly points at Mingyu, which caused both newcomers to freeze.

 

“You look familiar,” he says to the tallest.

 

“I-I’m sure you haven’t seen me before,” Mingyu stutters, “I’m not from around here.” Seungcheol wanted to slap Mingyu for stuttering through his words when earlier, the other had scolded him to be careful with speaking.

 

Jihoon frowns.

 

“I suppose,” Jihoon sighs, he eyes Hansol once more, “seems like you had a rough night too, kid.”

 

Hansol scoffs.

 

“My dad was just being difficult, that’s all,” the younger replies, “I’m supposed to graduate soon but he keeps moving my evaluation date further and further.” Jihoon nods understandingly, his features soften a little as he reaches over to pat Hansol’s back.

 

“I’m guessing you don’t want to see him for the rest of the night,” Jihoon crosses his arms.

 

Hansol snorts. “Make that an entire week,” he glances back at Seungcheol and Mingyu, “can we crash at yours? I’m assuming you guys don’t have a place to stay as well unless you want to sleep in that wrecked ship of yours.” Hansol was now facing the two newcomers. Jihoon was still eying them suspiciously, though it seems like he didn’t really mind the idea.

 

“Yeah, we’d appreciate that,” Mingyu answers, smiling a little. Seungcheol was busy having a staredown with Jihoon but nods as well.

 

“Alright, then it’s settled,” Hansol lets himself inside as Jihoon moves aside. Jihoon’s house wasn’t anything special, though it was surprisingly neat, organized and minimalistic. Mingyu spots an open room which lead to a dirty and messy-looking room, which he assumes was Jihoon’s workspace. His eyes then landed on his living room, there was one large white couch, a coffee table, and a plasma TV. On the side was a strange-looking machine, something Mingyu has never seen before. It looked like some sort of skateboard with no wheels.

 

Jihoon gestures his living room. “Since Hansol’s taking the guest bedroom, I can only offer you my sofabed.”

 

“It’s cool, you letting two complete strangers stay over is enough for us to be grateful for,” Jihoon snickers at Seungcheol’s reply.

 

“Well not to sound like an asshole, but you both look like shit and I suggest you shower before hitting the hay,” Jihoon yawns at the last word, “I’ll be going now. Get comfy, I guess.”

 

With that, Jihoon heads to his room while Hansol watches Mingyu and Seungcheol prepare the sofabed, shower, and change into their sleepwear. Since Mingyu had prepared to run away beforehand, he had some clothes with him and obviously, they would fit Seungcheol since Mingyu was larger than he was.

 

“So, tell me more about yourselves,” Hansol suddenly says as he watches Mingyu and Seungcheol sit on the sofa. The youngest had dragged a dining room chair to sit on in the living room.

 

“We already did-“

 

“I have a younger sister,” Mingyu interrupts, “and a dog.”

 

Hansol smiles.

 

“Huh, same here,” he replies, “how old are you?”

 

“I’m 21, and Cheol is…” When did Mingyu start using nicknames on Seungcheol? The younger pauses and turns to face the older, who was barely awake while lying on the sofa bed, “how old are you again?”

 

“I’m 25,” came his short answer.

 

“You guys are old as hell,” Hansol shakes his head, “I’m only 19.” Seungcheol raises a brow upon hearing that, he honestly expected Hansol to be older than that.

 

“That’s not too far from my age!”

 

“Yeah? Did you know Jihoon is 28?”

 

“Shit what-“

 

Seungcheol remains quiet as Hansol and Mingyu continue their conversation, feeling somewhat left out as the two kept on talking about their families. While he did have parents, it didn’t help the fact that his family and the entire population of the lower class people probably hates him now for abandoning his teammates.

 

Since Hansol nor Mingyu made any move to include Seungcheol in their conversation, the oldest decided to sleep early since it’s been a long fucking day for both him and he hasn’t slept on anything this comfortable and soft in his life.

 

Hansol soon left to sleep in the guest room while Mingyu went to sleep next to Seungcheol. They placed several pillows between them because Seungcheol did not want to wake up accidentally cuddling the other or vice versa. Mingyu didn’t need to know that he was a cuddler.

 

Seungcheol’s eyes were closed, however, he couldn’t sleep. Because of that, he definitely heard the front door open and the alarms in his head immediately went off. His eyes shot open and Seungcheol glances backwards and saw two shadows entering the room. He gets rid of the barricade separating them and shakes Mingyu awake before reaching over for his ray gun. Mingyu didn’t look pleased to have his sleeptime interrupted.

 

“What the fuck, Seungcheol-“

 

“Shush! Someone’s in the house!” he whisper-yells at the younger. Mingyu quirks a brow.

 

“Well duh, there’s Jihoon and Hansol-“

 

“No! Someone broke in-“ Seungcheol looks behind Mingyu, eyes widening at the sight of the shadow advancing closer to them, it was dark so Seungcheol couldn’t really make out what the person was wearing, however, they were adorned in dark clothing and there was a big chance that it could be the cops.

 

Mingyu turns around to see the figure as well. Without warning, he suddenly jumps off the couch and punches the dark figure, which elicited a rather loud yelp from said person.

 

“What the fuck-?”

 

“What the hell is going on?” the lights suddenly went on, revealing a grumpy Jihoon followed by Hansol and an unfamiliar figure in a dark hoodie.

 

Seungcheol hides his ray gun and raises both arms up. He looks at Mingyu, who seemed in shock at whatever he was looking at. Seungcheol follows Mingyu’s gaze which was casted downwards and-

 

_Oh._

On the floor was a young man with dark hair and was wearing a dark blue hoodie. He was rubbing his face and his face was contorting in pain. Seungcheol thought he looked really pretty. However, two things about the man that caught his eye was his cat ears and furry tail.

 

Clearly, he wasn’t human.

 

“They broke in and I thought they were the co- intruders!” Seungcheol went to defend himself.

 

“Why the fuck did you hit me?” the man with cat ears complains, he slowly gets up and dusts himself. Mingyu was staring at him in a dumbfounded manner.

 

“W-well you were wearing a hoodie and you looked suspicious as fuck!” Mingyu splutters out, the man with cat ears narrows his eyes at him.

 

Hansol watches the scene with an amused look while Jihoon was busy rubbing his temples. The unnamed man next to Jihoon didn’t seem all that amused either.

 

“Soonyoung, remind me to never give you my spare keys, ever again,” Jihoon says to the man besides him.

 

Soonyoung shrugs. “Well I didn’t you know you had guests over, you _never_ have guests over unless it’s Hansol.”

 

“You really shouldn’t be breaking into my house at this time,” Jihoon gestures the clock, “with Wonwoo of all people, I’m glad he’s finally coming out of his batcave but what the fuck?”

 

Seungcheol eyes the man on the floor, Wonwoo, as Jihoon mentioned before, before looking back to Jihoon.

 

Soonyoung glares at Mingyu, pointing at him. “You. Tall guy. I don’t appreciate you punching my best friend.”

 

Mingyu glares back at him. “Well maybe he shouldn’t be sneaking up on me in the first place!”

 

“Yeah well you shouldn’t be punching people at all! I don’t like violent people!”

 

“Well-!”

 

“All of you be quiet!” Jihoon interrupted, he looks at Mingyu, Wonwoo, and Seungcheol then at Soonyoung, “let me just introduce you guys to each other to put in your hit list or whatever. The guy next to me is Soonyoung and the one Mingyu just punched is Wonwoo, and yes, he’s half-human. The one who just punched Wonwoo is Mingyu and the one on my sofa bed is Seungcheol. Got it? Now get out of my house!”

 

“…”

 

Wonwoo glares at the three newcomers before walking out of the room. Soonyoung smiles sheepishly at a grumpy Jihoon before excusing himself.

 

Jihoon gives Mingyu and Seungcheol a pointed look.

 

“Hand over all your weapons to me. _Now_.”

 

~•~

 

“I know we live here, but wow, it feels like it’s been a long time since we last came here,” Seokmin commented as the two got off their ship. Jisoo was busy typing away on his phone before pocketing it and facing his partner. They landed near the airport, which was a few miles away from the closest city.

 

“We only have around 60 hours to find our targets, I suggest we start looking now,” Seokmin frowns at his boyfriend’s serious demeanor, “I want you to investigate about aircrafts leaving and entering this planet for the last 24 hours.”

 

“On it,” Seokmin drones, already on his phone.

 

“We should head to base,” Jisoo adds as he started walking towards the city.

 

“We’re walking all the way there?”

 

Jisoo gives him a knowing look. “We’re obviously taking our bikes. You do remember we have better tech here compared to 11AL-N?” With that, Jisoo pulls out a tiny device and places it on the floor, which transformed into a motorbike. “For some reason, our tech doesn’t work outside of our planet.” Jisoo gets on the bike and gestures Seokmin to sit behind him.

 

“A lot of our tech didn’t work in that planet,” Seokmin says as he sits behind Jisoo, feeling the elder visibly tense when he wraps his arms around his waist, “it’s weird.”

 

“They still use the monarchy system don’t they?” Jisoo starts the engine and drove forwards, “ruled by an emperor. Not to start rumors, but I did hear that the guy’s pretty ruthless and barbaric. Who the hell divides classes between their people like that?” While Jisoo didn’t really like what the lower class people had done to the people above, he still didn’t understand why such social stratification existed in the first place.

 

“I heard he’s died a while ago and his son replaced him. But I also heard that no one has actually seen his son’s face as well,” Seokmin added.

 

Jisoo chuckles. “Seems like all we got was gossip instead of progress on retrieving Mingyu.”

 

“Can’t help it. That place is real suspicious,” Seokmin shrugs.

 

They arrived at the police station within 20 minutes. Both Jisoo and Seokmin jumps off the motorbike and Jisoo returned the motorbike to its original form before pocketing it. They greeted some of their seniors as they made their way towards the elevator. Jisoo spotted some trainees walking around the building, though he fails to see a familiar face he was hoping was around.

 

Upon arriving at the top floor, the two went to knock the nearest door to the elevator, which was Captain Choi’s office.

 

“Come in.”

 

Jisoo and Seokmin went inside and saluted.

 

“Officer Hong, Officer Lee, seems like you both have returned,” Captain Choi didn’t seem that happy to see them, “I have heard of what happened in AL11-N, I must say I’m quite disappointed with the both of you for letting it happen. Be grateful Mr. Lee has not heard about this.”

 

Both Jisoo and Seokmin bows. “We apologize for failing. It won’t happen again.”

 

Captain Choi remains unfazed.

 

“Damn right it won’t,” both officers tense at his harsh words, “but what can we do but redeem ourselves? We have received information that there was an unknown space craft that entered our atmosphere last night in the junkyard area. I want you two to investigate that.”

 

Both Jisoo and Seokmin nodded.

 

“Understood, sir.”

 

“Dismissed.”


End file.
